Pick your enemies, might just be the story of Blur’s career. Initially, a guitar-pop band enamoured with The Kinks’ story of ailing Britain, Damon Albarn picked a fight with Oasis, and the working masses took the side of the more melodically pleasing of the groups, the band from Manchester. But with “Coffee and TV,” surely one of the greatest alternative rock songs of the ‘90s, Blur proved it could merge quirkiness with tremendous choruses.
Why does the guitarist get kidnapped in the video, and why was he suspended from his own band? And what do tea-drinking Brits know about coffee anyway? Here’s the meaning behind the lyrics to “Coffee & TV” and a short history lesson of Blur.
Blur’s Road to Making “Coffee & TV”
Ambition! That’s what all the notable British groups of the early 1990s had. The Stone Roses would make interviewers ask them questions and refuse to give straight answers. Oasis proclaimed themselves as their heirs to the Beatles. And Jarvis Cocker of Pulp sang about having a bigger brain than the average disco dweller.
But, I suppose, Blur was more ambitious than all of those. Led by singer and walking advert for the decline of the middle class in Great Britain, Damon Albarn, Blur initially set about melding shoegaze, grunge, The Kinks and Syd Barrett in a platinum-selling rock package.
It didn’t exactly work, although initial efforts revealed three key things: 1. Albarn was talented, albeit colossally annoying, in my opinion. 2. Guitarist Graham Coxton was the bespectacled genius of the band, and 3. The group had potential.
By 1993, Blur had veered toward arena-pleasing pop rock. In the mid-’90s, the group tried to go toe-to-toe with Oasis for mass-pleasing Britpop. And in 1997, Coxton’s love of Pavement and Sebadoh turned the group into a guitar-heavy indie-rock band.
But in 1999, Britpop was nearly done, Blur had cleverly walked off the ship, and the album “13” showed a group willing to bring in quiet pop with songs like “Tender,” and avant-rock with “Trim Trabb.” Not all of it was convincing, but the album was rescued by the excellent “Coffee & TV.”
Lyrics Meaning to “Coffee & TV”
Damon Albarn’s biggest problem with the world was, I think, for a long time, the fact that the world offered him success, but didn’t take him very seriously. Around the late 1990s, that thing changed because of two reasons – the advent of Gorillaz in the 2000s and the flourishing of Graham Coxton’s abilities.
I am torn about the artistic merit of early 1990s Blur. However, I am convinced that Coxton is one of the greatest talents Britain produced in that period. Influenced by the likes of Syd Barrett, noisy punk-rock, and the guitar playing of Stephen Malkmus, Coxton penned “Coffee & TV” while trying to give up the booze, the drugs and the partying.
He wouldn’t exactly succeed immediately. In fact, Blur would “suspend” him for a while, resulting in the band’s weakest album.
But here, Coxton pens lyrics about existential dread over a sunny pop melody to great effect. It’s a song about trying to find the silver lining in simple, everyday things.
In fact, Coxton received more of a creative role on “13.” The artwork is an oil painting of his titled “Apprentice.” And, the brilliantly chaotic guitar solo used on “Coffee & TV”, a spontaneous invention, would’ve been unheard of on early 1990s records by the band.
Music Video
I will be honest. I hate Blur videos, especially those where Damon Albarn’s trying to act like one of the guys. But I also hate the one with the guy from “Qudrophenia” or the one where all the band members are dressed like Alex from “A Clockwork Orange.”
However, the promo clip for “Coffee & TV” is a classic. It was created by Hammer & Tongs and features a milk cartoon coming to life and trying to deliver a message about Coxton having been abducted. Milky ends up falling in love with a strawberry milk carton, which distracts him, and he gets run over.
The Legacy of Blur and of “Coffee & TV”
Britpop, and frankly, all guitar rock, which was not nu-metal or post-grunge, was having a hard time commercially in 1999. However, “Coffee & TV” was a moderate hit. It made No. 11 in the U.K. charts and was featured in the “Cruel Intentions” soundtrack.
But its reputation really grew over the years. It’s become one of Blur’s most famous songs, was lauded in Rolling Stone and Melody Maker, and NME, always suspicious of Blur, called the guitar solo one of the best of all time.
This might’ve been a great time to call it a day. However, Blur next released the abhorrently sappy “No Distance Left to Run as a Single.” I hate it.
The group also dared to release “Think Tank” as a Coxton-less album in 2003, and the world just laughed.
However, old wounds were patched up over the years, and Gorillaz-related checks helped Albarn’s ego. Blur came back and released two strong albums over the last decade, “The Magic Whip” and “The Ballad of Darren.”
They’ve likely called it a day. However, no doubt, “Coffee & TV” is one of the greatest alternative songs of the 1990s.
